Chapter 4: 1 of every 2 education dollars stays in classroom
A typical suburban classroom of 25 students represents $315,000 in revenue.
That's $12,600 per kid, the average per-pupil revenue collected in 2005-06 by the 94 school districts in the Daily Herald coverage area.
Some of that $315,000 goes to teacher salaries and benefits, supplies, textbooks and classroom technology.
The rest -- more than half -- leaves the classroom.
Over the past decade, the 94 districts spent an average of 48 percent of their revenue on instruction and teacher-pupil activities.
Statewide, districts spent 50.1 percent on instruction, about half of the $171 billion they collected.The remainder went to everything else: construction and maintenance; janitors, nurses, social workers and guidance counselors; administrators and principals; consultants and lawyers.Some states, though not Illinois, now specify a certain percentage of all expenditures that must go toward instruction.The regulations raise questions about whether such laws improve or hamstring learning -- and whether a fair way exists to measure whether classrooms are getting their fair share.Most people can agree they'd like to see their tax money spent on teachers and textbooks, not bureaucracies and consultants. SCHOOL FINANCE 101 Chapter 4 1 of every 2 education dollars stays in classroom 65-percent solution gains traction The numbers: Spending in the classroom
Here are the total amounts of revenue area school districts collected in the 1996-97 and 2005-06 school years; instruction expenditures each year; and the percentage of revenue spent on instruction. View report Also available is a downloadable, 10-year look at area school districts and their total revenues, instruction expenditures, and the percent of revenue spent on instruction.
[XLS document] Chapter 3
Suburban taxpayers' heavy share
The numbers: A decade of local funding
Here are the total amounts of local revenue area school districts collected in the 1996-97 school year, the average daily attendance that year, and the local revenue on a per pupil basis; then the same data for the 2005-06 school year; and finally, the total amount of local revenue received over the 10-year period. View report
Also available is a downloadable look at the amount of local revenue area school districts collected in each of the school years from 1996-97 through 2005-06. With each year's local revenue total is that year's average daily attendance (ADA) and the local revenue shown on a per pupil basis (pp). At the end of each row is the total amount of local funding each district received over the 10-year period, and how much the revenue, attendance and per pupil revenue changed over those 10 school years.
[XLS document]
Chapter 2
Big difference: funding varies between districts
The numbers: Revenue and attendence
Here are the total amounts of state revenue area school districts collected in the 1996-97 school year, the average daily attendance (ADA), and the state revenue on a per pupil (pp) basis; then the same data for 2005-06; and finally, the total amount of state revenue received over the 10-year period. View report
Also available is a downloadable look at year-by-year state revenue for area school districts, also with average daily attendance (ADA) and per pupil (figures), and more.
[XLS document]
Chapter 1